“Our LMP1 project has brought together some of the brightest stars in motorsport design and engineering, and the next chapter will see CEFC TRSM Racing announcing driving talent of equally high measure.

“Personally, I am delighted to see Charlie Robertson’s name on the entry list.

“We have taken him from a 14-year-old experiencing his very first car race in the Ginetta Junior Championship, all the way to the pinnacle of international motorsport, and that’s something we strive to do for every one of our drivers.”

Jake Kilshaw is a UK-based journalist who is Sportscar365's European Editor and also Managing Editor for e-racing365. He is a student of Politics and International Relations and is a member of the Autosport Academy. Contact Jake

Tyler, did you pay attention last year? Had one of the Porsches not gotten repaired and able to come back, a P2 would have won and the winning P2 car DID finish ahead of the best finishing Toyota, so yeah, it could easily happen.

Expecting a P2 win requires the assumption that EVERY LMP1 is either going to fail or be as slow as ByKolles in their WORST years. Regardless of whether there’s any parity between Toyota and the privateers, I find it hard to believe that the new privateer P1s will all(or even mostly) be slower than the LMP2s. That leaves reliability. There are four LMP1 chassis entered this year – Toyota and their bad luck, ByKolles and their questionable competence, plus two unprovens from Ginetta and BR. The BR chassis, however, has been developed by Dallara who know how to make a robust racecar to begin with and will be applying lessons learned from the Cadillac DPi development to maximize the car’s strength – I suspect it’s only the engine that has any cause for concern there.

Put simply, there is FAR more to LMP1 this season than there was last year. Far more that can go wrong, far more that can go RIGHT. It’s rather short-sighted to expect ANYTHING right now.

Don’t count out ByKolles just yet! They’ve parted with AER and have the GTR LM-NISMO LMP1 engine which has proven to be reliable @ Le Mans 2015. The only reason why Nissan DNF is that they horribly shot themselves in the foot and bit off more than they could chew. The ByKolles NISMO even briefly jumped one of the Toyotas on the 1st lap of Le Mans last year. If they hadn’t ran wide @ Tetre Rouge and damaged the front of their car, who knows what might of happened. But they need more horsepower out of that engine to keep up with the new-gen LMP1 rivals let alone the Toyotas.